FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (12th - 18th DECEMBER 1972)
This week's 14 stories include a tragedy at a Thatto Heath school, the distemper epidemic that was sweeping St Helens, the new device that was saving many local miners' lives, the Sherdley Hall Farm fire, the switching on of the town's Christmas lights, Radio Merseyside excitedly embraces medium wave and the truth about the tax-collecting VAT ogres.
We begin with a terrible tragedy at Thatto Heath Junior School when the children were at lunchtime play. Stephen Heaton accidentally bumped his head with another boy in the school playground and within hours the eight-year-old was dead. At the time Stephen was only thought to have been dazed and so was sent home in the care of two boys. He walked the short distance from Dunedin Street to Canberra Avenue – but then collapsed in his house.
Stephen was taken to St Helens Hospital and transferred to Alder Hey for an emergency operation – but died there later from brain damage. His mother Edith Heaton said: "There wasn't a mark on him. I'm heartbroken. I feel for the other little boy, too. It wasn't his fault." Headmaster Eric Moss said: "We are all very upset about it here. Stephen was a nice boy from a good family – I know them quite well and I taught his father."
On the 13th Father Christmas and members of St Helens Round Table continued their tour of the town singing carols and collecting donations of food and cash. During that evening they visited areas of Windle and Eccleston, with contributions received going towards Christmas food parcels for local old age pensioners. Gifts of food or donations of cash could also be placed in boxes displayed in the main supermarkets in St Helens.
The town's Christmas lights were switched on during the evening of the 14th. Unlike today there was no great fuss with bands playing etc. – the Corporation just switched the lights on! Father Christmas had been at Oxleys and Helena House since early November and so it does seem rather late for the festive illuminations to come on. The council had erected Christmas trees at the Parish Church, Town Hall and at the Ormskirk Street United Reformed Church and there was also a crib in Victoria Square.
During the evening of the 14th Frodsham's draper's shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford was burgled. Clothes and other items worth £2,300 were stolen while owner Edith Frodsham slept unawares in her upstairs flat.
Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen – described in the Reporter as "the king of jazz" – performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 14th. Then on the following day the music switched from trad jazz to brass band with The Massed Bands of Fairey and Fodens in concert in Corporation Street.
The Echo reported on the 15th that more pupils were now taking school meals. That was after a price hike from 9p to 12p introduced in April 1971 had led to many parents deciding their children should take sandwiches to school or come home for their dinner. St Helens was now serving about 11,500 school meals a day, which was 10% more than in December 1971 but still a few hundred lower than before the price rise. About 2,000 children in St Helens were receiving free school meals.
"Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets" was the headline to another story in the Echo. The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens. Already about 300 animals had died or been put down during the previous three months. The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated. A vet from the town said: "If more dogs had been vaccinated the disease would be eradicated. For the last 15 years there has been a first class vaccine available to cope with this disease which causes the animals great suffering."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and in their account of the story stated that the distemper was believed to have begun in Sutton a month earlier, adding: "Now cases are pouring in from all over St. Helens." They had a quote from their own anonymous vet who said: "We are in the middle of an epidemic and it will get worse before it gets better." The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be the cost at £3 to £4 – that's around £50 in today's money.
The Reporter also announced how a £20 dust trap was checking two diseases that had killed thousands of miners in St Helens. Dramatic improvements had been reported in the level of dust at local pits where tests had taken place with a new safety curtain. That filtered the dust that was known to cause silicosis and pneumoconiosis. Cronton Colliery had been the first pit in the North Western Area to install the filter curtain and the dust count there had been reduced by almost a third.
Bold Colliery (pictured above) had a bigger problem with dust than most pits because of its dry nature and had installed the device three months earlier. Its safety engineer David Owen told the paper that the curtain had so far proved very effective. The Reporter also reckoned that a "massive cash transfusion" into the coal industry would mean that Sutton Manor and Bold Collieries would be "saved from a possible future closure". That was because of the new Coal Industries Bill that would allow the National Coal Board to invest in mines for the long term.
In another article the paper described how members of the North West Disabled Angling Association that belonged to their St Helens branch were intending to take militant action over plans to in-fill a canal. If moves were made to send in the bulldozers, the forty fishermen planned to block their path with their wheelchairs. The water was a nearly 1,000-yard-long stretch of the Sankey Canal at Winwick, which was a favourite angling spot for disabled fishermen.
Bill O’Neill of Canberra Avenue in St Helens told the Reporter: "We're prepared to take militant action, it means that much to us." Currently the proposals were only in the early planning stages. But the news came at a time when the British Waterways Board had received planning permission to "de-water, dredge, fill in, and improve" a 5-mile length of the canal from Blackbrook double locks to Newton.
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter on the new Krazy Kuts wines and spirits store in Eccleston Street in St Helens. Their opening offers included whisky on sale from £2.45 per bottle, with vodka and gin at similar prices. As for beer, a large can of Guinness cost 15p and Newcastle Strong was priced at 4 cans for 56p.
In these days of high-quality digital broadcasting, it seems odd to get excited about downgrading your radio service to a poorer quality. But the bosses at Radio Merseyside were doing just that in the Reporter, as they proudly announced the imminent launch of their station on medium wave. For five years Radio Merseyside had been broadcasting to the region exclusively on VHF – or FM, as it is now more commonly known.
Although far better quality than medium wave – especially at night – not many listeners then had VHF sets. And the burgeoning car radio market was almost exclusively medium wave. So the station was excitedly looking forward to expanding its listenership, although it would soon have to face competition from commercial radio. A currently unnamed station – that would eventually be known as Radio City – was set to start broadcasting in two years' time.
The Reporter also described how fifty cattle came close to being burnt to death by a fire that might have been deliberately set. Joseph Frith of Sherdley Hall Farm (pictured above) described how he saw flames coming from a barn next to where his cattle were feeding: "I rang the fire brigade, then ran to the cattle. As soon as they heard the flames crackling they panicked. They were terrified. When I opened the door they shot out. If the firemen hadn't arrived so speedily it could have been a disaster. But they prevented it from spreading."
In March 1973 Purchase Tax – that had been imposed on goods at their point of manufacture and distribution – was due to be replaced by the new-fangled VAT which was added at their point of sale. That was as a result of joining the European Economic Community. The 33% rate of Purchase Tax was expected to be reduced to 10% VAT in order to raise an equivalent amount of revenue and this week the Reporter decided to address the thorny subject:
"Mention Value Added Tax and most people conjure up visions of tax-collecting ogres and soaring prices. To many it is just another Whitehall con-trick designed to ring more money from the man in the street. And they think that while government officials gloat over the coffers, the normal man will have to resign himself to being bled. But in reality, none of these illusions could be further from the truth. Value Added Tax will affect you, the consumer, but it should not hit you where it hurts – in the pocket."
It did not when the tax was introduced at the rate of 10% – but Conservative governments subsequently increased the VAT rate, in part to pay for a reduction in the unpopular Community Charge, aka "Poll Tax".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the bumper Christmas shop cash sales, a police raid on a British Legion club, the Parr jockey that broke his hoodoo, Eccleston's new library opens on Broadway and the pre-Christmas entertainment in St Helens.
We begin with a terrible tragedy at Thatto Heath Junior School when the children were at lunchtime play. Stephen Heaton accidentally bumped his head with another boy in the school playground and within hours the eight-year-old was dead. At the time Stephen was only thought to have been dazed and so was sent home in the care of two boys. He walked the short distance from Dunedin Street to Canberra Avenue – but then collapsed in his house.
Stephen was taken to St Helens Hospital and transferred to Alder Hey for an emergency operation – but died there later from brain damage. His mother Edith Heaton said: "There wasn't a mark on him. I'm heartbroken. I feel for the other little boy, too. It wasn't his fault." Headmaster Eric Moss said: "We are all very upset about it here. Stephen was a nice boy from a good family – I know them quite well and I taught his father."
On the 13th Father Christmas and members of St Helens Round Table continued their tour of the town singing carols and collecting donations of food and cash. During that evening they visited areas of Windle and Eccleston, with contributions received going towards Christmas food parcels for local old age pensioners. Gifts of food or donations of cash could also be placed in boxes displayed in the main supermarkets in St Helens.
The town's Christmas lights were switched on during the evening of the 14th. Unlike today there was no great fuss with bands playing etc. – the Corporation just switched the lights on! Father Christmas had been at Oxleys and Helena House since early November and so it does seem rather late for the festive illuminations to come on. The council had erected Christmas trees at the Parish Church, Town Hall and at the Ormskirk Street United Reformed Church and there was also a crib in Victoria Square.
During the evening of the 14th Frodsham's draper's shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford was burgled. Clothes and other items worth £2,300 were stolen while owner Edith Frodsham slept unawares in her upstairs flat.
Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen – described in the Reporter as "the king of jazz" – performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 14th. Then on the following day the music switched from trad jazz to brass band with The Massed Bands of Fairey and Fodens in concert in Corporation Street.
The Echo reported on the 15th that more pupils were now taking school meals. That was after a price hike from 9p to 12p introduced in April 1971 had led to many parents deciding their children should take sandwiches to school or come home for their dinner. St Helens was now serving about 11,500 school meals a day, which was 10% more than in December 1971 but still a few hundred lower than before the price rise. About 2,000 children in St Helens were receiving free school meals.
"Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets" was the headline to another story in the Echo. The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens. Already about 300 animals had died or been put down during the previous three months. The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated. A vet from the town said: "If more dogs had been vaccinated the disease would be eradicated. For the last 15 years there has been a first class vaccine available to cope with this disease which causes the animals great suffering."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and in their account of the story stated that the distemper was believed to have begun in Sutton a month earlier, adding: "Now cases are pouring in from all over St. Helens." They had a quote from their own anonymous vet who said: "We are in the middle of an epidemic and it will get worse before it gets better." The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be the cost at £3 to £4 – that's around £50 in today's money.
The Reporter also announced how a £20 dust trap was checking two diseases that had killed thousands of miners in St Helens. Dramatic improvements had been reported in the level of dust at local pits where tests had taken place with a new safety curtain. That filtered the dust that was known to cause silicosis and pneumoconiosis. Cronton Colliery had been the first pit in the North Western Area to install the filter curtain and the dust count there had been reduced by almost a third.
In another article the paper described how members of the North West Disabled Angling Association that belonged to their St Helens branch were intending to take militant action over plans to in-fill a canal. If moves were made to send in the bulldozers, the forty fishermen planned to block their path with their wheelchairs. The water was a nearly 1,000-yard-long stretch of the Sankey Canal at Winwick, which was a favourite angling spot for disabled fishermen.
Bill O’Neill of Canberra Avenue in St Helens told the Reporter: "We're prepared to take militant action, it means that much to us." Currently the proposals were only in the early planning stages. But the news came at a time when the British Waterways Board had received planning permission to "de-water, dredge, fill in, and improve" a 5-mile length of the canal from Blackbrook double locks to Newton.
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter on the new Krazy Kuts wines and spirits store in Eccleston Street in St Helens. Their opening offers included whisky on sale from £2.45 per bottle, with vodka and gin at similar prices. As for beer, a large can of Guinness cost 15p and Newcastle Strong was priced at 4 cans for 56p.
In these days of high-quality digital broadcasting, it seems odd to get excited about downgrading your radio service to a poorer quality. But the bosses at Radio Merseyside were doing just that in the Reporter, as they proudly announced the imminent launch of their station on medium wave. For five years Radio Merseyside had been broadcasting to the region exclusively on VHF – or FM, as it is now more commonly known.
Although far better quality than medium wave – especially at night – not many listeners then had VHF sets. And the burgeoning car radio market was almost exclusively medium wave. So the station was excitedly looking forward to expanding its listenership, although it would soon have to face competition from commercial radio. A currently unnamed station – that would eventually be known as Radio City – was set to start broadcasting in two years' time.
In March 1973 Purchase Tax – that had been imposed on goods at their point of manufacture and distribution – was due to be replaced by the new-fangled VAT which was added at their point of sale. That was as a result of joining the European Economic Community. The 33% rate of Purchase Tax was expected to be reduced to 10% VAT in order to raise an equivalent amount of revenue and this week the Reporter decided to address the thorny subject:
"Mention Value Added Tax and most people conjure up visions of tax-collecting ogres and soaring prices. To many it is just another Whitehall con-trick designed to ring more money from the man in the street. And they think that while government officials gloat over the coffers, the normal man will have to resign himself to being bled. But in reality, none of these illusions could be further from the truth. Value Added Tax will affect you, the consumer, but it should not hit you where it hurts – in the pocket."
It did not when the tax was introduced at the rate of 10% – but Conservative governments subsequently increased the VAT rate, in part to pay for a reduction in the unpopular Community Charge, aka "Poll Tax".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the bumper Christmas shop cash sales, a police raid on a British Legion club, the Parr jockey that broke his hoodoo, Eccleston's new library opens on Broadway and the pre-Christmas entertainment in St Helens.
This week's 14 stories include a tragedy at a Thatto Heath school, the distemper epidemic that was sweeping St Helens, the new device that was saving many local miners' lives, the Sherdley Hall Farm fire, the switching on of the town's Christmas lights, Radio Merseyside excitedly embraces medium wave and the truth about the tax-collecting VAT ogres.
We begin with a terrible tragedy at Thatto Heath Junior School when the children were at lunchtime play.
Stephen Heaton accidentally bumped his head with another boy in the school playground and within hours the eight-year-old was dead.
At the time Stephen was only thought to have been dazed and so was sent home in the care of two boys.
He walked the short distance from Dunedin Street to Canberra Avenue – but then collapsed in his house.
Stephen was taken to St Helens Hospital and transferred to Alder Hey for an emergency operation – but died there later from brain damage.
His mother Edith Heaton said: "There wasn't a mark on him. I'm heartbroken. I feel for the other little boy, too. It wasn't his fault."
Headmaster Eric Moss said: "We are all very upset about it here. Stephen was a nice boy from a good family – I know them quite well and I taught his father."
On the 13th Father Christmas and members of St Helens Round Table continued their tour of the town singing carols and collecting donations of food and cash.
During that evening they visited areas of Windle and Eccleston, with contributions received going towards Christmas food parcels for local old age pensioners.
Gifts of food or donations of cash could also be placed in boxes displayed in the main supermarkets in St Helens.
The town's Christmas lights were switched on during the evening of the 14th. Unlike today there was no great fuss with bands playing etc. – the Corporation just switched the lights on!
Father Christmas had been at Oxleys and Helena House since early November and so it does seem rather late for the festive illuminations to come on.
The council had erected Christmas trees at the Parish Church, Town Hall and at the Ormskirk Street United Reformed Church and there was also a crib in Victoria Square.
During the evening of the 14th Frodsham's draper's shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford was burgled.
Clothes and other items worth £2,300 were stolen while owner Edith Frodsham slept unawares in her upstairs flat.
Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen – described in the Reporter as "the king of jazz" – performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 14th.
Then on the following day the music switched from trad jazz to brass band with The Massed Bands of Fairey and Fodens in concert in Corporation Street.
The Echo reported on the 15th that more pupils were now taking school meals.
That was after a price hike from 9p to 12p introduced in April 1971 had led to many parents deciding their children should take sandwiches to school or come home for their dinner.
St Helens was now serving about 11,500 school meals a day, which was 10% more than in December 1971 but still a few hundred lower than before the price rise. About 2,000 children in St Helens were receiving free school meals.
"Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets" was the headline to another story in the Echo.
The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens.
Already about 300 animals had died or been put down during the previous three months.
The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated.
A vet from the town said: "If more dogs had been vaccinated the disease would be eradicated. For the last 15 years there has been a first class vaccine available to cope with this disease which causes the animals great suffering."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and in their account of the story stated that the distemper was believed to have begun in Sutton a month earlier, adding: "Now cases are pouring in from all over St. Helens."
They had a quote from their own anonymous vet who said: "We are in the middle of an epidemic and it will get worse before it gets better."
The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be the cost at £3 to £4 – that's around £50 in today's money.
The Reporter also announced how a £20 dust trap was checking two diseases that had killed thousands of miners in St Helens.
Dramatic improvements had been reported in the level of dust at local pits where tests had taken place with a new safety curtain.
That filtered the dust that was known to cause silicosis and pneumoconiosis.
Cronton Colliery had been the first pit in the North Western Area to install the filter curtain and the dust count there had been reduced by almost a third.
Bold Colliery (pictured above) had a bigger problem with dust than most pits because of its dry nature and had installed the device three months earlier.
Its safety engineer David Owen told the paper that the curtain had so far proved very effective.
The Reporter also reckoned that a "massive cash transfusion" into the coal industry would mean that Sutton Manor and Bold Collieries would be "saved from a possible future closure".
That was because of the new Coal Industries Bill that would allow the National Coal Board to invest in mines for the long term.
In another article the paper described how members of the North West Disabled Angling Association that belonged to their St Helens branch were intending to take militant action over plans to in-fill a canal.
If moves were made to send in the bulldozers, the forty fishermen planned to block their path with their wheelchairs.
The water was a nearly 1,000-yard-long stretch of the Sankey Canal at Winwick, which was a favourite angling spot for disabled fishermen.
Bill O’Neill of Canberra Avenue in St Helens told the Reporter: "We're prepared to take militant action, it means that much to us."
Currently the proposals were only in the early planning stages. But the news came at a time when the British Waterways Board had received planning permission to "de-water, dredge, fill in, and improve" a 5-mile length of the canal from Blackbrook double locks to Newton.
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter on the new Krazy Kuts wines and spirits store in Eccleston Street in St Helens.
Their opening offers included whisky on sale from £2.45 per bottle, with vodka and gin at similar prices. As for beer, a large can of Guinness cost 15p and Newcastle Strong was priced at 4 cans for 56p.
In these days of high-quality digital broadcasting, it seems odd to get excited about downgrading your radio service to a poorer quality.
But the bosses at Radio Merseyside were doing just that in the Reporter, as they proudly announced the imminent launch of their station on medium wave.
For five years Radio Merseyside had been broadcasting to the region exclusively on VHF – or FM, as it is now more commonly known.
Although far better quality than medium wave – especially at night – not many listeners then had VHF sets. And the burgeoning car radio market was almost exclusively medium wave.
So the station was excitedly looking forward to expanding its listenership, although it would soon have to face competition from commercial radio.
A currently unnamed station – that would eventually be known as Radio City – was set to start broadcasting in two years' time.
The Reporter also described how fifty cattle came close to being burnt to death by a fire that might have been deliberately set.
Joseph Frith of Sherdley Hall Farm (pictured above) described how he saw flames coming from a barn next to where his cattle were feeding:
"I rang the fire brigade, then ran to the cattle. As soon as they heard the flames crackling they panicked. They were terrified. When I opened the door they shot out. If the firemen hadn't arrived so speedily it could have been a disaster. But they prevented it from spreading."
In March 1973 Purchase Tax – that had been imposed on goods at their point of manufacture and distribution – was due to be replaced by the new-fangled VAT which was added at their point of sale. That was as a result of joining the European Economic Community.
The 33% rate of Purchase Tax was expected to be reduced to 10% VAT in order to raise an equivalent amount of revenue and this week the Reporter decided to address the thorny subject:
"Mention Value Added Tax and most people conjure up visions of tax-collecting ogres and soaring prices. To many it is just another Whitehall con-trick designed to ring more money from the man in the street.
"And they think that while government officials gloat over the coffers, the normal man will have to resign himself to being bled.
"But in reality, none of these illusions could be further from the truth. Value Added Tax will affect you, the consumer, but it should not hit you where it hurts – in the pocket."
It did not when the tax was introduced at the rate of 10% – but Conservative governments subsequently increased the VAT rate, in part to pay for a reduction in the unpopular Community Charge, aka "Poll Tax".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the bumper Christmas shop cash sales, a police raid on a British Legion club, the Parr jockey that broke his hoodoo, Eccleston's new library opens on Broadway and the pre-Christmas entertainment in St Helens.
We begin with a terrible tragedy at Thatto Heath Junior School when the children were at lunchtime play.
Stephen Heaton accidentally bumped his head with another boy in the school playground and within hours the eight-year-old was dead.
At the time Stephen was only thought to have been dazed and so was sent home in the care of two boys.
He walked the short distance from Dunedin Street to Canberra Avenue – but then collapsed in his house.
Stephen was taken to St Helens Hospital and transferred to Alder Hey for an emergency operation – but died there later from brain damage.
His mother Edith Heaton said: "There wasn't a mark on him. I'm heartbroken. I feel for the other little boy, too. It wasn't his fault."
Headmaster Eric Moss said: "We are all very upset about it here. Stephen was a nice boy from a good family – I know them quite well and I taught his father."
On the 13th Father Christmas and members of St Helens Round Table continued their tour of the town singing carols and collecting donations of food and cash.
During that evening they visited areas of Windle and Eccleston, with contributions received going towards Christmas food parcels for local old age pensioners.
Gifts of food or donations of cash could also be placed in boxes displayed in the main supermarkets in St Helens.
The town's Christmas lights were switched on during the evening of the 14th. Unlike today there was no great fuss with bands playing etc. – the Corporation just switched the lights on!
Father Christmas had been at Oxleys and Helena House since early November and so it does seem rather late for the festive illuminations to come on.
The council had erected Christmas trees at the Parish Church, Town Hall and at the Ormskirk Street United Reformed Church and there was also a crib in Victoria Square.
During the evening of the 14th Frodsham's draper's shop in Ormskirk Road in Rainford was burgled.
Clothes and other items worth £2,300 were stolen while owner Edith Frodsham slept unawares in her upstairs flat.
Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen – described in the Reporter as "the king of jazz" – performed at the Theatre Royal in St Helens on the 14th.
Then on the following day the music switched from trad jazz to brass band with The Massed Bands of Fairey and Fodens in concert in Corporation Street.
The Echo reported on the 15th that more pupils were now taking school meals.
That was after a price hike from 9p to 12p introduced in April 1971 had led to many parents deciding their children should take sandwiches to school or come home for their dinner.
St Helens was now serving about 11,500 school meals a day, which was 10% more than in December 1971 but still a few hundred lower than before the price rise. About 2,000 children in St Helens were receiving free school meals.
"Disease Threatens To Wipe Out Town's Pets" was the headline to another story in the Echo.
The report explained how a distemper epidemic was threatening the lives of dogs in St Helens.
Already about 300 animals had died or been put down during the previous three months.
The disease was particularly contagious in the St Helens district because three-quarters of dogs had not been vaccinated.
A vet from the town said: "If more dogs had been vaccinated the disease would be eradicated. For the last 15 years there has been a first class vaccine available to cope with this disease which causes the animals great suffering."
The St Helens Reporter was published on the 15th and in their account of the story stated that the distemper was believed to have begun in Sutton a month earlier, adding: "Now cases are pouring in from all over St. Helens."
They had a quote from their own anonymous vet who said: "We are in the middle of an epidemic and it will get worse before it gets better."
The reason for the low level of vaccinations appeared to be the cost at £3 to £4 – that's around £50 in today's money.
The Reporter also announced how a £20 dust trap was checking two diseases that had killed thousands of miners in St Helens.
Dramatic improvements had been reported in the level of dust at local pits where tests had taken place with a new safety curtain.
That filtered the dust that was known to cause silicosis and pneumoconiosis.
Cronton Colliery had been the first pit in the North Western Area to install the filter curtain and the dust count there had been reduced by almost a third.
Its safety engineer David Owen told the paper that the curtain had so far proved very effective.
The Reporter also reckoned that a "massive cash transfusion" into the coal industry would mean that Sutton Manor and Bold Collieries would be "saved from a possible future closure".
That was because of the new Coal Industries Bill that would allow the National Coal Board to invest in mines for the long term.
In another article the paper described how members of the North West Disabled Angling Association that belonged to their St Helens branch were intending to take militant action over plans to in-fill a canal.
If moves were made to send in the bulldozers, the forty fishermen planned to block their path with their wheelchairs.
The water was a nearly 1,000-yard-long stretch of the Sankey Canal at Winwick, which was a favourite angling spot for disabled fishermen.
Bill O’Neill of Canberra Avenue in St Helens told the Reporter: "We're prepared to take militant action, it means that much to us."
Currently the proposals were only in the early planning stages. But the news came at a time when the British Waterways Board had received planning permission to "de-water, dredge, fill in, and improve" a 5-mile length of the canal from Blackbrook double locks to Newton.
There was an advertising feature in the Reporter on the new Krazy Kuts wines and spirits store in Eccleston Street in St Helens.
Their opening offers included whisky on sale from £2.45 per bottle, with vodka and gin at similar prices. As for beer, a large can of Guinness cost 15p and Newcastle Strong was priced at 4 cans for 56p.
In these days of high-quality digital broadcasting, it seems odd to get excited about downgrading your radio service to a poorer quality.
But the bosses at Radio Merseyside were doing just that in the Reporter, as they proudly announced the imminent launch of their station on medium wave.
For five years Radio Merseyside had been broadcasting to the region exclusively on VHF – or FM, as it is now more commonly known.
Although far better quality than medium wave – especially at night – not many listeners then had VHF sets. And the burgeoning car radio market was almost exclusively medium wave.
So the station was excitedly looking forward to expanding its listenership, although it would soon have to face competition from commercial radio.
A currently unnamed station – that would eventually be known as Radio City – was set to start broadcasting in two years' time.
The Reporter also described how fifty cattle came close to being burnt to death by a fire that might have been deliberately set.
"I rang the fire brigade, then ran to the cattle. As soon as they heard the flames crackling they panicked. They were terrified. When I opened the door they shot out. If the firemen hadn't arrived so speedily it could have been a disaster. But they prevented it from spreading."
In March 1973 Purchase Tax – that had been imposed on goods at their point of manufacture and distribution – was due to be replaced by the new-fangled VAT which was added at their point of sale. That was as a result of joining the European Economic Community.
The 33% rate of Purchase Tax was expected to be reduced to 10% VAT in order to raise an equivalent amount of revenue and this week the Reporter decided to address the thorny subject:
"Mention Value Added Tax and most people conjure up visions of tax-collecting ogres and soaring prices. To many it is just another Whitehall con-trick designed to ring more money from the man in the street.
"And they think that while government officials gloat over the coffers, the normal man will have to resign himself to being bled.
"But in reality, none of these illusions could be further from the truth. Value Added Tax will affect you, the consumer, but it should not hit you where it hurts – in the pocket."
It did not when the tax was introduced at the rate of 10% – but Conservative governments subsequently increased the VAT rate, in part to pay for a reduction in the unpopular Community Charge, aka "Poll Tax".
St Helens Reporter courtesy St Helens Archive Service at Eccleston Library
Next week's stories will include the bumper Christmas shop cash sales, a police raid on a British Legion club, the Parr jockey that broke his hoodoo, Eccleston's new library opens on Broadway and the pre-Christmas entertainment in St Helens.